A number of gases have been shown to have pharmaceutical action in humans and animals. One such gas is Nitric oxide (NO) that, when inhaled, acts to dilate blood vessels in the lungs, improving oxygenation of the blood and reducing pulmonary hypertension. Because of this, NO can be provided as a therapeutic pharmaceutical drug in gas form in the inspiratory breathing gases for patients with diseases (e.g., pulmonary hypertension).
The dosing of an inhaled pharmaceutical drug in gas form can be based on numerous variables. For example dosing can be based on the quantity of drug (usually in weight) per unit weight of the patient (e.g., mg/Kg) with the dose being specified to be delivered over a period of time or being repeated at specified intervals of time. This can allow users to control the quantity of drug and ensure the quantity of drug being delivered is in proportion to the patient's size. Further, this dosing technique can reduce the patient to patient variability in response to the drug due to the size of the patient (i.e. a 7 Kg baby will not get the same quantity of drug as a 80 Kg adult). Of course other techniques and/or variables can be used for dosing.
The dosing of a pharmaceutical drug in gas form for a pharmaceutical action and/or for a specific disease can have a tight window between the therapeutic level for the pharmaceutical drug and the level that causes harm. For example, various quantities of pharmaceutical gas can provide benefits to patients; however, if a pharmaceutical gas is delivered in too high a quantity then harm can be caused to a patient. For another example, timing delivery of pharmaceutical gas to various points during inspiration can provide benefits to patients; however, if delivery is timed to other points during inspiration the beneficial effects can be diminished and/or harm may be caused to a patient.
In light of at least these tight windows, it would be beneficial to deliver doses of a pharmaceutical drug in gas form to patients with specific flow profiles. However, these dosing flow profiles can be substantially complex and/or can require substantially accurate and precise quantities of gas that may be substantially small and/or that may vary with respect to substantially short durations of time. Further, generating and/or providing dosing with these specific flow profiles that have such requirements can be substantially difficult and require specific delivery systems that may require the use of expensive components. These expensive components can increase the cost of such systems, reduce availability to the public, and/or utilize resources that may be limited.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have a system and method that can accurately and precisely generate and/or provide pharmaceutical gases with specific desired dosing flow profiles. It would also be advantageous to have such as system and method be fabricated and/or utilize techniques that reduce costs, for example, to increase availability to the public and/or more effectively allow for use of resources.